Loud and Quiet
by Kailey Hamilton
Summary: That's what Inoue Momoe's evenings sounded like, but she wouldn't have it any other way. Momoe-centric (character study) with some Jun, Chizuru and Miyako thrown in. Oneshot.


_Notes: Written for For Odaiba Week - Day 3 [Unsung Heroes (and Villains): Celebrating minor characters.] I've had headcanons about the Inoue siblings for ages. It feels good to let it all out._

* * *

 **Loud and Quiet**

That's what Momoe's evenings sounded like.

Wanyamon stirred in her sleep, and Momoe tried to stay still as Jun rambled on the phone. Jun talked enough for the two of them, which suited Momoe just fine. It was different with Jun than it had been with Asami back in middle school, because Jun was fierce and loyal and Asami... well, Momoe would've liked to break that friendship long before she did, but Asami's family kept pets. Three cats, to be precise. Momoe was invited over after school at least once a week, until the ninth grade. For many months afterward, she'd missed the feeling of a cat pressing his head against her palm. She'd missed that more than she'd missed Asami, that was sure.

Momoe's parents didn't want to know anything about pets, not even before her sisters were born. Now, as Chizuru put it, _we have a Miyako_. But Miyako had been her only partner in crime in her quest for a pet... until she got Hawkmon.

A few months later, and there she was. Wanyamon was blue and fluffy and Momoe complained little as the creature slept on her lap. Three odd little birds flying, running around and her own kitten-like companion usually preferred to cuddle and jump in her bed. What could her parents say now? The Digimon had proved useful in helping around the house and the store, as well as making family evenings a whole lot more joyful. Life had changed for the best, yet it continued its due course.

Yes, Jun was a much better, more loyal friend than Asami had been, and every single phone call would remind her of that.

"-by the way," she was saying, "I just remembered. Are you free to go to the mall tomorrow? There's a sale at-"

"I have rehearsal."

"You always have rehearsal." She can almost see Jun's pout, before she changes her tactic. "You're club president. Can you-?"

"No." She'd heard the question enough to anticipate it.

"So you won't quit, even if this is your last year."

Momoe bit her tongue. It had been one thing that led to another, which led to another, becoming a big snowball of little reasons that she cared to dissect for no one. So she didn't. It still meant little when all she wanted was to be accepted into a Drama program. Twelve years of education for _this_ ; it would be disappointing for anyone who had bigger, better dreams for her. It mattered little, when she had a successful older brother and two clever little sisters.

It should come as a surprise to no one, really. She was nine the first time she printed a short story in their old, half-broken printer and had Chizuru act it out with her. She would write her own stories. Sometimes they were princesses, sometimes they were mermaids, and the favorites had seen reprisals in front of a tiny audience of family members. Miyako had joined them when she was old enough to read. Mantarou would routinely refuse to participate, but every now and then, at Miyako's tearful insistence, he would agree to play the villain.

Miyako thought her the best actress ever, dropping everything to help her even at short notice. Chizuru would give the best critique, and Mantarou was the one taking her to the theater on his own money and finding her new plays to read. So maybe they knew. But still. She knew she could count with Jun's support as well... telling her, however, wasn't as pressing. Momoe loved Jun, she really did. But Jun wasn't very good at keeping secrets.

"I'm club president," she answered. "Too late to back out now, don't you think? And hey, since when do you care about sales, anyway?"

"I need new shoes for the summer."

When Jun said she needed new shoes, it actually meant that she _needed_ new shoes. Momoe wasn't looking forward to being dragged from store to store as Jun tried on one pair after another. She sighed loudly into the receiver, attempting with all her might to convey her annoyance.

"Fine. I will go with you on Sunday."

"I'm not sure if the sale will last until then..." Momoe could spot fake hesitation from miles away. "Then you buy me lunch."

"What if I don't?"

"Don't worry. You will."

"I'm broke. Your call."

"I'm a low-maintenance girl."

"No, no you're not."

"Oi, Momoe," a voice said behind her. She turned around in her revolving chair, startled, to see Chizuru standing at the door. Pinamon, for once, was perched in her shoulder instead of trying to pick a fight with Mantarou's Chapmon. So _that's_ why the house was so quiet.

Wanyamon yawned and blinked twice, mostly awake.

"See, now you woke her up."

"It's no time to be sleeping."

"You have no say in this, Chizuru. What do you want?"

"Sunday."

Of course Chizuru was listening in. That's all she ever did. She didn't even bother to be subtle about it anymore. Momoe's eyes switched from her, to Pinamon, to her again. She sometimes wondered whether Chizuru had a partner, or a minion.

"I'm going with Jun to the mall."

"I'll go with you, then."

"You can't come with us."

"Why not?"

Momoe covered the receiver before whispering, "It's not that you can't. It's that you don't want to. Trust me."

"At what time? Ten? Eleven?"

"I said no, Chizuru."

"Chizuru can come!" Jun chirped. "I haven't seen her in a while."

"No, no she can't."

"You can't stop me." Chizuru turned around and left, too used to having the last word.

"Bring your own money!" Momoe managed to say before losing sight of her sister.

"How rude!" was Chizuru's answer, already in the living room by the sound of it, and then her voice came in fainter. "Oi, Miyako! Have any plans this weekend?"

In spite of herself and her ruined plans, Momoe smiled as she heard Miyako agree with excitement. Chizuru had surely become more mindful. Miyako had spent years wishing her older sisters would include her more, ever since she was a tiny little things with pigtails and too loud of a voice. Yet she'd hit thirteen and started turning down their invitations to do anything, to go anywhere. Miyako had never been the secretive kind, and this sort of rejection had hit both Chizuru and Momoe just as they'd become more mindful. Younger teens tend to be like that, their mother had said, much to Chizuru's annoyance.

Eventually, they'd stopped asking Miyako to tag along, but now she had no more secrets to hide, no more digital places to be at behind their backs. Miyako was only thirteen, surely too young to have saved the world. Most astounding of all, she'd kept going on with life as having supernatural adventures was part of every childhood. Momoe truly wished she could've been there for her. But all she knew of Miyako's adventures was whatever little Chizuru had gathered while eavesdropping.

 _I am not eavesdropping,_ Chizuru's voice said in her mind. _It's not my fault there's a paper-thin wall between her room and mine._ Well, if Chizuru's eavesdropping was what triggered her empathy, for once, then so be it.

"Sorry about my sisters," Momoe whispered on the phone. "I didn't mean for this to happen."

"It's alright. You're lucky you have sisters. The brat would never even want to be seen with me."

"I'm pretty sure it's the other way around."

"Hey, I have gotten better, but he's just as annoying. Always hogging the television with those videogames of his. I am behind in every series I'm watching."

Momoe decided not to mention that Jun had gotten Daisuke a videogame for his recent birthday, or that she was older and stronger and could impose her will if she wished. She'd dealt with Chizuru's treatment of Miyako for long enough to recognize the signs.

"Daisuke seriously needs to learn some manners."

 _Wait for it._

"You don't say a single mean thing about my little brother, Momoe. Take that back. Now."

Her point proven, Momoe let out a satisfied smile. Jun surely loved to whine about Daisuke, but she loved him more than anything.

"Why don't you invite him on Sunday? My sisters are tagging along, so-"

It was petty revenge on a dear friend, but it felt good all the same.

"It's different. What business does he have with the lot of us?"

"He's Miyako's friend, and I understand they see each other very little since she moved up to middle school. It's only fair, and I think he'd want to come."

"Wait, they're not-"

"No, no they're not. I would know."

She didn't. It was mostly wishful thinking. Miyako getting a boyfriend before she did would be just depressing, and she suspected Jun was thinking something along those lines as well. At least Chizuru didn't seem so interested in boys...

"Momoe," it was Wanyamon's voice, now fully awake. "Momoe, I'm hungry."

"Right. Jun, I have to go now." She shuffled, intending to get up. "See you tomorrow?"

"Sure thing! Sunday, don't forget!"

"Like any of you would let me," she muttered into the phone, but the call had ended already. "I'm hungry too, Wanyamon. Mom should be calling us to eat any minute now."

Wanyamon hopped twice for all response. She wasn't much of a talker - for once, it was Momoe doing all the talking. They both preferred companionable silences nonetheless, so that's how they sat for a while. Momoe scratched Wanyamon behind her ear, earning herself a purr. Miyako and Chizuru were fighting already, over something or another. Maybe about their respective shifts at the store, maybe about their Digimon partners's shenanigans, or even a borrowed skirt.

Their screams did little to disturb her own peace and quiet. That's what Momoe's evenings sounded like, after all, and it wasn't about to change.


End file.
